First hello, my name is Bill and I'm new to the smoking family and the site. I somehow missed this site, but read a lot of reviews on smokers and decided to go with the '07 model masterbuilt in black with the door latch and vent. I feel I've learned more on this site in a couple of hours than I did in my research though. I'm looking forward to learning more!
After reading some of the masterbuilt posts, I am now sure I had the chip box installed wrong. I kept thinking it wasn't in right before using it for the first time Sunday to do ribs, and I'm half glad it was wrong. I put the lower deflector on the burner, and succeeded in only drying out my wood chips. I did get some flavor out of the steam that came off the chips, but after reading the posts, if the box would have been installed correctly a full tube of chips would have ruined my first attempt. I just went outside and heated it up for 10 minutes with the box installed correctly added a smalll ammount of chips had more smoke than I got with the same pan of chips for 5 hours Sunday.
I also just ordered a digital meat thermometer and am looking forward to trying the whole thing over again this weekend. For my first attempt, the pork spare and baby back ribs were good, but nothing spectacular. I know it will take some learning, but I'm hoping this site will help with the learning curve. I'm a huge beef rib fan and I can get beef ribs at the butcher, but nobody makes them locally. That's ok, because I rarely find ribs I like locally anyway. Any recomendations for beef ribs in the smoker, from times, rubs, woods, or others would be welcome, particularly if you have experience with a masterbuilt or similar smoker.
I signed up for the e-course today, but I know almost nothing about smoking other than my favorite local bbq that smoked meats closed and I guess that means I need to figure this out because I don't want to live without it!!
After reading some of the masterbuilt posts, I am now sure I had the chip box installed wrong. I kept thinking it wasn't in right before using it for the first time Sunday to do ribs, and I'm half glad it was wrong. I put the lower deflector on the burner, and succeeded in only drying out my wood chips. I did get some flavor out of the steam that came off the chips, but after reading the posts, if the box would have been installed correctly a full tube of chips would have ruined my first attempt. I just went outside and heated it up for 10 minutes with the box installed correctly added a smalll ammount of chips had more smoke than I got with the same pan of chips for 5 hours Sunday.
I also just ordered a digital meat thermometer and am looking forward to trying the whole thing over again this weekend. For my first attempt, the pork spare and baby back ribs were good, but nothing spectacular. I know it will take some learning, but I'm hoping this site will help with the learning curve. I'm a huge beef rib fan and I can get beef ribs at the butcher, but nobody makes them locally. That's ok, because I rarely find ribs I like locally anyway. Any recomendations for beef ribs in the smoker, from times, rubs, woods, or others would be welcome, particularly if you have experience with a masterbuilt or similar smoker.
I signed up for the e-course today, but I know almost nothing about smoking other than my favorite local bbq that smoked meats closed and I guess that means I need to figure this out because I don't want to live without it!!